By Johnny V

The Botany of Chili Peppers

            &nb sp;            &nbs p; The Domesticated Five:

1) annum, from "annual; this includes most of the common peppers found in markets including bell peppers, jalapenos and New Mexican.

2) baccatum, from "berry-like"; these are the aji peppers found commonly in South America.

3) chinense, meaning "from China"; this includes the famous habanero, Scotch Bonnets, etc.

4) frutescens, meaning "brushy" and are the tabasco peppers.

5) pubescens, from "hairy"; these are the South American rocoto peppers.
 

  The Chemical Structure of the Capsaicinoids

Capsaicin (N Vanillyl 8 methyl 6 (E) noneamide) is the most pungent of the group of five compounds called capsaicinoids isolated from chili peppers. It is barely soluble in water, but is easily dissolved into fats, oils and alcohol.

           The second most common capsaicinoid is Dihydrocapsaicin

Capsaicin and Dihydrocapsaicin together make up 80-90% of the capsaicinoids found in the fruit of the chili pepper plant. In C. annum the total capsaicinoid content ranges from 0.1 to 1.0%, and the C. dihydrocapsaicin ratio is about 1:1. In C. frutescens (Tabasco peppers) the total content ranges from 0.4-1.0% with the ratio around 2:1.

The minor capsaicinoids include Nordihydrocapsaicin [Dihydrocapsaicin with (CH2)5 instead of (CH2)6], Homocapsaicin [Capsaicin with (CH2)5 instead of (CH2)4], and omodihydrocapsaicin [Dihydrocapsaicin with (CH2)7 instead of (CH2)6].

Scoville Units for the group of five capsaicinoids

 
Capsaicin 160,000

Dihydrocapsaicin 160,000

Nordihydrocapsaicin 91,000

Homocapsaicin 86,000

Homodihydrocapsaicin. 86,000
 

                     or, How hot did you say this one was?

This list is all the peppers I have personally found and is probably not complete. I have found some of the Scoville Units but not all for this list, naturally I found the S.U. for the ones I eat the most.

1 Red Savina Habanero AKA Scotch Bonnet

Hottest known chile (350-500,000 Scoville Units of pure heat). If you've just eaten one, you won't be wondering what kind of chili it was.

* Growing Tip

This pepper requires a long warm season for the best results.

2 Orange Habanero AKA Manaza

This is just about the hottest pepper (100-300,000 Scoville Units) and will still take the face off the novice who thinks they can eat hot peppers.

* Growing Tip

This pepper requires a long warm season for the best results.
3 Tabasco Chilies

This is the principal ingredient in Tabasco sauce. Although I'm just about immune to them, if you eat one raw, it will get the endorphins pumping pretty good.

* Growing Tip

This pepper requires a long hot season for the best results.

4 Super Chili Hybrid

This is a very nice pepper for asian style cooking.

* Growing Tip

It's a nice small compact plant that can be grown indoors in a container.

5 Firecracker Piquin Chilies

I like these pickled. During growth the blossom is purple when they start to bloom and the fruit is purple at the start turning red when mature.

6 Serrano Huasteco

The Mexican (10,000-23,000 S.U.) variety is far superior and disease resistant.

7 Cayenne

Red Cayene-30,000-50,000 S.U.

Green Cayene-30,000-40,000 S.U.

Skinny or slim in appearance, nice and hot, usually dried and ground, ie: cayenne pepper at your supermarket.

8 Red Fresno aka Caribe

(5,000 S.U.) I haven't eaten many of these. Try them, you might like the taste.

9 Jalapeño

This is not a very hot chili (2,500-5,000 S.U.), more potent when picked early.

10 Guero aka Yellow Wax
( 2,000-5,000 S.U.). This is not my most favourite but good for the novice palette.

11 Mirisol

( 2,000-5,000 S.U.) This is one of the Mexican's most popular chilies. It comes medium to hot and has a very nice flavor.

12 Española Ristra Chilies

( 2,000-5,000 S.U.) This New Mexico (red type) is a good pepper to try and grow. It requires a short season. It's great to cook with as the flavour is most pleasant and it's mild enough to serve to the average white anglo palette.

13 Anaheim

This is a standard canning chile (500-1,500 S.U.). It is long and green in appearance and is best picked early.

14 Poblano/Ancho San Luis
This is the standard Mexican chili (1,000-5,000 S.U.) that is usually stuffed with seasoned meat and rice.

15 Mulato Isleno

Very similar to the Anchos chile (1,000-4,500 S.U.) and has a very good resistance to disease.

16 Pasilla Bajio Chili

(1,000-3,500 S.U.) This pepper is long and narrow in appearance and is the one used for mole sauce.
17 New Mex Joe Parker

(2,000-5,000 S.U.) This New Mexico hybrid chili is long and green in appearance, It is not that hot but has a nice flavour when used in sauces and mild salsas.

18 Pepperoncini

(5,00-1,500 S.U.) A very common mild pickling pepper.

19 Petite Sirah Mild Picklers

(5,00-1,500 S.U.) This mild chili is best picked early and is a common pickling pepper.

20 The Green, Red, Yellow, Orange or Purple Bell Pepper (1-2 S.U.) What can you say about a Bell pepper? Ah, lets see, it adds a nice green, red, yellow, orange or purple colour to the food's appearance and presentation. :-)

21 Spanish Paprika

This poor little guy failed terribly at Capsaicin College. IT HAS NO FIRE AT ALL!!!! European, Hungarian or Spanish Paprika is best as a colouring in food. It's usually dried and ground.

                     (or, WAAAA, you said it wasn't hot?)

The Scoville Scale was set up in the mid 1920s (some claim 1912) by Wilbur Scoville. It is officially called the Scoville Organoleptic Test. OK, here's the test. Wilbur had a panel of skilled taste testers sample sugar water he spiked with a chili pepper. Then the panel would appraise the effect of the biting acrid sensation penetrating their mouths. This test survives as the ASTM method. HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography) testing came about because of the especially pressing need arising from the fact there were not enough human guinea pigs who could taste test scotch bonnets all day and have a mouth left to taste with the next.

            &nb sp; High Pressure Liquid Chromatography Test

The High Performance Liquid Chromatography test is a method for testing capsaicinoids in chili peppers. HPLC Methods for Capsaicin Determination. The Scoville rating is obtained by HPLC, and is not currently a subjective measurement. The Scoville measurement is an actual scientific measurement to determine the amount of capsaicin contained in a pepper.
"Separation and Quantitation of Red Pepper Major Heat Principles by Reverse-Phase High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography"

25 g ground red pepper was extracted in 200 mL 95% ethanol at 65- 75 C 5 hours, allowed to settle, decanted, and cooled to 20 C. 50 microliters were injected from a 100 microliter Hamilton LC syringe via a Waters U6K injector into a Waters HPLC system with a 10 micron micro-Bondapak C18 column and a Bondapak C18/Corasil guard column and a UV detector set at 280 nm. HPLC operated isocratically with a Waters 660 solvent programmer using a mobile phase of 40:60 v/v acetonitrile:water (1% acetic acid) at 1.5 ml per minute.

Quantitation was done using commercially available N-vanillyl-n-nonamide as an external standard.
*Note: The above test thoroughly and meticulously goes on to explain the performance of the separation and the quantitation. However, it does mention, that if N vanillyl n nonamide has been added to the chili preparation, this system will not sense the presence of the separate capsaicin. You would need to confirm this by some other means. The procedure also states "ground chili is extracted". I believe it's safe to assume that would mean the whole chili (seeds, membranes, and all). Ergo you may with a feeling of assurance, feign that most reported HPLC capsaicinoid results are based on the whole chili. I'm sure you could test it piece by piece. If one had the time, desire, and effort.

            &nb sp;           ASTM E 083 88

            &nb sp;            &nbs p;     "Standard Test"

            &nb sp;      "Sensory Evaluation of Red Pepper Heat

               or Mo' Guinea Pigs please, these ones are burnt"

This method uses the "taste test panel" approach of the Scoville Organoleptic Test to evaluate the burning sensation in the mouth, produced by tasting the different species of chilies that are prepared in a red pepper powder and mixed in water.

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Continued....in Peppers 3